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Pipeline leaks oil near Staples

At least a dozen vacuum trucks are cleaning up an oil spill that happened earlier Friday near Staples in Todd County along a stretch of 16-inch pipeline.

The pipeline belongs to Kansas-based Koch Pipeline Company and runs from Clearbrook, Minn., down to a refinery in Rosemount. Koch officials estimate the pipeline break released more than 200,000 gallons of oil.

Jack Reint, a spokesman for Flint Hill Resources, which operates the refinery, said he can't speculate about how the incident might affect the price of fuel, but said the facility won't have to shut down because of the spill.

"We have adequate supply and we maintain some inventory on site to guard against pipeline disruptions," Reint said. "There are also others pipelines capable of delivering crude to our refinery."

Koch Pipeline Company has shut down the pipeline for now. Company officials say at this point they don't know what caused the oil spill.